


Save the Date

by Darkmagyk



Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians & Related Fandoms - All Media Types, Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan
Genre: Anniversary, F/M, Fluff, Las Vegas, Las Vegas Wedding, Marriage, Percy Jackson's Birthday
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-19
Updated: 2020-08-19
Packaged: 2021-03-05 22:08:34
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,997
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25982614
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Darkmagyk/pseuds/Darkmagyk
Summary: Their last time in Vegas wasn't so great, but they are grown ups now. They can make new memories, in this place, and on this day.A Percy Birthday/Percabeth Anniversary fic!!
Relationships: Annabeth Chase/Percy Jackson
Comments: 5
Kudos: 73





	Save the Date

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you to my darling [Tritonjackson](https://tritonjackson.tumblr.com/) for being an enabler and a beta. 
> 
> Thank you to Percy and Annabeth for ruining my life.

Annabeth had suggested it in March after an impromptu late night swim, they’d agreed in late June, sitting on the end of the dock on the canoe lake, and two weeks ago, when driving through Colorado, Percy had had the inspired idea to make a reservation.

Since then, it had been a whirlwind of unrelated things. Freshman Orientation, moving into their dorms, and half a dozen awkward dinners with the San Francisco Chases. Those were only awkward mostly because her father was going out of his way to try and make a good impression on Percy.

It was actually pretty funny. Annabeth was given to understanding that normally it was the other way around, boyfriends wanted to impress their girlfriends’ dads. But Frederick Chase knew that the only reason Annabeth had given him another chance was Percy, twelve years old and earnest to a fault. Her dad didn’t take that lightly. When he’d flown out to New York to pick her up before that ill-fated trip to Boston, when her whole family had come to the east coast for her graduation, and last week, when they stayed at her dad’s house before beginning the semester at New Rome University, everything her dad did seemed designed to sell Percy on why he should join the Chase family, and not just take Annabeth away with him. Probably because he, unlike most dads, knew that if ever forced to choose between Percy or her father, Annabeth would go with Percy in a heartbeat, and never regret it. She wouldn’t even feel bad.

He seemed very intent on not ever having her think she had to make a choice he would lose. And also, pretty confident in the knowledge that things like access to his future grandchildren were very much based on Percy’s favor. He let Percy pick all the restaurants for their dinners, had played _Muppets Treasure Island_ for family movie night, and was more than happy for his teenaged daughter and her similarly aged boyfriend to share a bed under his roof.

He was so desperate to approve of anything and everything they did he’d likely even support this, and he wouldn’t even complain that he hadn’t been invited.

There were two other couples in the waiting area. The very intoxicated man, whose fiancée was passed out in the chair next to him, was quick to strike up a conversation. The other couple, two women several chairs away, kept giving them suspicious glances.

“…and that’s when we knew we had to do it,” The man was saying, “last day of vacation, but we couldn’t wait any longer.”

“That’s sweet?” Annabeth said for small talk, while Percy asked for the third time if his fiancée was ok and neither of them questioned why they were both so inebriated at eleven in the morning.

“She’s fine, she’s fine,” he said. “We had a big night. What about you guys?”

“We just flew in this morning,” Percy said, but he was still frowning at the sleeping woman. Luckily, he wasn’t so distracted as to say that they flew in on a pegasus. “Have to get a good night's sleep before traveling.”

“This was the first thing you decided to do in Vegas?” It was one of the women in the other couple. They were both dressed in pretty white dresses. Annabeth was in jeans with a hole in the knee and a shirt she’d stolen from Percy. It featured a non-copyrighted clown fish on a skateboard with a speech bubble that said, ‘Sea you never.’ Annabeth had bought it for him, so she figured she was allowed to claim it for her own.

“This was when our appointment was.” Percy smiled. “But no, we went to the clerk’s office, first.” It was possible they had stretched the truth on the form. Put certain parents as unknown, promised they weren’t more closely related than second cousins. Small, unavoidable, demigod details.

“You made an appointment?” That was both the drunk man and the suspicious woman.

That man seemed confused that you could pre-book these kinds of things, the woman probably wanted to know why they’d showed up in jeans if this had been planned. Percy’s at least didn’t have holes in them, and his shirt had honest-to-gods buttons. It was blue, and brought out the ocean in his eyes even in the waiting room’s overhead lights. She had considered putting on some lipstick or something, or breaking out her skirt, but she didn’t know how the makeup would have survived the trip via winged horse and she didn’t know how to ride sidesaddle. As it was, she’d only just adjusted her hair a little bit while Percy picked up the license. It was still a frizzy, wild mess, even tied back. Percy was so effortlessly beautiful all the time. It would have been intimidating, and sometimes it almost was, but then looked at her, and smiled. And it became her beauty to enjoy. Annabeth was an architect, she liked beautiful, interesting things. And nothing in the world was as beautiful or as interesting as Percy. 

She could drive herself to distraction thinking about him, if the real thing wasn’t in front of her, taking up the better part of her attention. “We figured if we had concrete deadlines, we wouldn’t miss our chance.” Percy said. It wasn’t that this wasn't a priority, but ADHD had a habit of screwing up even the best of plans.

That seemed to interest the woman. “How long is your trip for?” she asked.

“We're just here for the day,” Annabeth said. “And we didn't want to get lost in the lights of Las Vegas. The rest of our week is pretty busy--we didn't want to get distracted and miss our window.” Percy had heard legends about the Vegas buffets, and a couple of well-known magicians were demigods, with another Annabeth though possibly an Egyptian Magician.They would avoid anything involving lotuses. A better trip to Vegas, with much lower stakes, and no zoo trucks. But hopefully plenty more bonding, once they got the important paperwork out of the way.

“So you scheduled this?” The woman’s fiancée repeated the original question, “you knew you were going to come here today.” She frowned at Annabeth’s shoes. They were blue converses, chosen when she was 15 and had decided to seduce Percy with her footwear, now beat up through several years of wear, and yet somehow in better condition than Percy's sandals. 

Percy's grin was impossibly sappy. “I have been waiting a very long time for this.”

The man seemed to recover after the revelation that you could plan this in advance and laughed: too hard, too long, too loud, too drunk.

“Why did you choose August 18th?” He asked.

Percy smiled, “It’s our two-year Anniversary.” Leaning over and kissing her temple.

She laughed. “Also your birthday,” she pointed out.

“Best present ever! And double the celebration,” Percy said. “We have to make it a day full of as much celebration as we can. Remember all the good.” She can sometimes still see Luke’s body before the Fates took it away. She hadn’t really figured out weaving then, but she wished she could have made his shroud. She wanted happier memories of today. Underwater kisses, last year’s post Gigantomachy birthday party and follow up anniversary date, times a thousand.

“It's your birthday?” One of the women asked, maybe even more incredulous then that Annabeth had shown up to her wedding in ripped jeans

The man started singing ‘Happy Birthday.’ Percy's grin was unashamed.

“You wanted to get married on your birthday?” The other woman asked.

“I absolutely,” he said, “did not want to wait a second longer than I had to for this. We've been waiting too long already.”

“And this way,” Annabeth added, “I don’t think I’ll forget the date.”

“Why would you forget?” Asked the drunk man. “You’re the girl. Remembering is your job.”

“That’s not how ADHD works,” Annabeth said.

“It will probably take a decade before she remembers to get all her name change stuff in a row.”

She scoffed. “I’ll have you know I started the form to get my passport changed,” She said. At 3 am, two nights ago, after her first night in her dorm, and her first night not sleeping next to Percy in about three weeks.

Percy’s smile was fond. “I’ll believe it when I see it.”

Her eyes narrowed; his smile was handsome. His face was beautiful. His eyes were perfect. He shared a lot of that beautiful face with Poseidon, and some ancient, magical part of her wanted to wipe it off his face. Perhaps by pelting him with olives.

“I bet I’ll have all of it done by next time we go back to camp.” She said instead

Percy’s smile grew into a smirk, “Alright, what do you want to bet?”

“Loser has to have Cabin 17 on their team for the next capture the flag.”

“Harsh,” Percy said with a laugh, “So if I win, I get you to saddle you with the Victors, and if you win… there will be all sorts of legal proof you’re my wife. Sounds like I win either way.”

“Capture the flag? They’re so young,” said one of the women. She had the sense to whisper it into her fiancée’s ear, but demigod hearing came with perks.

The other woman asked, “When on earth did you get engaged?”

Annabeth smiled involuntarily at the memory, which was saying something because it wasn't actually a good memory at all. Except for how it was Percy and together and everything. “July 1st of last year.”

“The Kalends of July,” Percy pointed out. “An auspicious day.”

“Careful now,” she swatted at his arm and he laughed, probably thinking she’d tell him not to talk about gods and monsters in front of mortals, “you're not allowed to go full Legion on me.”

“Oh, I'm sorry,” he said, but his laughter was growing. “Which one of us was walking through the streets admiring the cobblestone and complementing the villas and architecture during orientation?”

She couldn't help it, she leaned over and kissed him. She _had_ been doing all of that. New Rome was amazing. She was too Greek, too much of a daughter of Athena, too much a child of Camp Half-Blood (maybe even a little bit too Norse?) to really truly feel like it was her place. But it felt safe. It felt like a place she could be herself, even if she was slightly different from everyone around her. No one there would question why she'd run away at seven. No one there would doubt her when she told them that her scars on her arm were from taking a poison knife. Everyone there knew that on July 1st of last year, Annabeth Chase and Percy Jackson had fallen into Tartarus together. They might not understand it perfectly, but they wouldn't be like these mortals in front of them: staring, gasping, trying to make sense of these two weird kids.

She'd been at Camp Half-Blood during her really formative years and before that she'd been a slightly neglected-slightly indulged child of a scatterbrain professor who had grown up knowing that a rainbow bridge existed over Boston, she didn't always do great in the mortal worlds. Percy help. Senior year with him had been something of a revelation. Percy was good at mortals, at their cues and their ideas, at what they expected. He didn't always want to give them it, and sometimes he just couldn’t, but it made Annabeth more confident in her own life. New Rome was not the mortal world. But it wasn't camp either: Half-Blood or Jupiter. She had hope she’d be able to build her life there, learn in more ways than just academic. 

“You're in school?” Maybe the drunk guy had finally realized they didn't really look close to his age. He was probably in his late 20s and so was his passed-out fiancée, The other couple were even older, in their 30s. They had certainly noticed.

Both their dresses were sleeveless. Annabeth saw no scars on their arms, though she had to admit not all scars were visible. She didn't know their lives. But they didn't know hers either. She didn't care what they thought about her wedding or her clothes or her life choices. She was an adult and so was Percy, but so many people she knew didn't manage that: Silena, Beckendorf, Lee, Michael, Jason, even Thalia, who would never grow up. And Luke. Luke _had_ made it too adulthood, just barely. But at such a cost. She was lucky. She was happy. She was free.

She grasped Percy's hand and he took it easily. They were together. That was all that mattered.

“Do your families know you're doing this?” One of the women asked.

“Not yet.”

“And they won't be upset?” Asked the other. They didn’t seem to have any witnesses either.

Percy frowned just a bit. “My mom will be disappointed,” he admitted, “but it's not like she'll be surprised or that she could have come out for it. And I don't think she would have given consent for us to do it before we left New York, so really, it’s her own fault.”

“Consent?”

“Yeah, you can't get married in New York or Nevada or California if you're under 18 without parental permission.” Percy said. He’d checked; Annabeth had been over his shoulder when he'd done it. Estelle had been napping in her arms, and he’d whispered to his sister that she had to keep his investigation a secret. Annabeth had nearly died from the cute.

“Your mother loves me,” Annabeth said. “She wants me to join the family.” Its teasing, but it’s also almost disbelieving. No one had been so willing to have her join their family since Luke and Thalia when she was seven.

“My mother would probably say you already joined the family,” Percy pointed out. “You were in the Christmas card last year and in the family, baby announcement photo.” He turned to the couple. “She'll probably be sad she didn't get to take and post a billion engagement photos on Instagram, but I think she'll be OK with it.”

“My dad will probably be glad I married someone who doesn’t hate him. And will probably be very happy we bothered to tell him after the fact.” She should remember to do that too, maybe when they have dinner again at his house on Friday.

“When you say it's your birthday, you mean it's your 18th birthday.”

“Yeah.” Percy said, “Never thought I'd make it this far, but I have.”

“Lead a dangerous life for an 18-year-old? “

“Very much so,” he said. “But I survived anyway.”

The two women shifted uncomfortably, sharing a couple look not understandable to the outside world. Annabeth had heard from about four dozen people that she and Percy have about 50 of those couple looks. Which seems like an off number. She’s pretty sure they have at least 100.

“You know,” one of them said, “You shouldn't rush into anything just because you think you need to. You're young, you have your whole lives ahead of you. I don't know if maybe your--church-told you, that you needed to get married, especially if you wanted to do certain adult things, but--”

Annabeth frowned. She had no idea what that woman meant, and why she brought up _church_ of all things. She didn't think she'd ever been inside a Christian church, let alone listen to one of their leaders. She hadn't realized Christmas was about the birth of a god until she was 13. Why would she have needed to know that when all the fun parts of Christmas were stolen from Yule and Saturnalia anyway.

“She thinks,” Percy whispered into her ear, like a sexy mortal to demigod translator, “that we're members of some church that says we have to get married young and we can't have sex until we get married. She might think we're homophobic because of that. And she's probably trying to save us from a cult.”

“Too late,” Annabeth said making a mental note that she'd probably forget to buy something particularly nice to sacrifice to Hera in hopes that she wouldn't curse them forever for getting married and putting themselves in her power. “We're not in a cult,” she told the woman, and then considered that wasn’t totally true. “We don’t go to church,” she tried again, “And we've already had sex. We wouldn't wait for marriage for something like that.”

The woman turned bright red, and Annabeth remembered that wasn't usually something you said to strangers, even in the lobby of a Las Vegas 24 hour wedding chapel when they were trying to give life advice.

“What she means,” offered Percy, he would piss off a god, but he’d been instructed by a lot of teachers on how to grovel to mortals when their own flaws are pointed out to them, “is thanks for your concern. But we're good.” He glanced at the woman who was passed out, as if to say, ‘She’s probably the one you should be concerned for.’

Both women’s heads followed his gaze, and he just shrugged.

Wherever the conversation might have gone from, there it didn't get a chance. The lady from the front desk popped her head back into the waiting room, a slightly sugary smile on her face, but she did get to see weddings all day.

“Jackson,” she called. “We're ready for you.”

A giggly mass of something light and frothy bubbled up through Annabeth. When she stood up, she actually swayed on the spot. Percy caught her with a hand around her waist. She leaned into his touch. How could anyone think she didn’t want to be right here, with him wrapped around her, for the rest of her life?

“Come on, wise girl,” he said, “let's go get married.”

**Author's Note:**

> Check me out on [tumblr](http://darkmagyk.tumblr.com/).


End file.
